“Hi! Good to see you again! It’s been a while!”, said the gym staff member. “What have you been doing?” “Eating, mainly” It’s tough to encapsulate a year’s worth of non-gym attendance into a single constructive sentence, but as I fast-rewound 2016 that was the best I could come up with. She looked at me…
Tag: marathon
NYC Marathon Part 8: After the Aftermath – 26.2 Points
For about an hour after the marathon I was wondering whether perhaps running marathons was – for me – a bad idea. I recalled the skinny guy in the med tent telling a medic that this was his first and he wasn’t sure he was cut out for this. Well if he’s not cut out…
NYC Marathon Part 7: The Aftermath
The problem was not my time (4:13:32), which was good enough for about 17,100th out of 49,600 – it’s my age. If I was between 75 and 79 years old my time would have been good for second in my age group category, and I kicked the 80-89 age group runners’ butts. In ‘reality’ though…
NYC Marathon Part 6: Bonk
“…shortly before the ascent up Mount Fifth Avenue began, a massive brick wall jumped out of the road in front of me and I slammed into it. I looked down at my legs in puzzlement, half-expecting to find a small child hanging on to each of them”
NYC Marathon Part 5: First Avenue
“DO NOT SPEED UP!”, they said with sympathy but an undertone of eye-roll. You’ll mess yourself up for the last three miles, they warned. Mile 16-17 along First Avenue is by 5% the fastest of the race. The two NYRR trainers giving their advice at the Expo put this down in large part to the…
NYC Marathon Part 4: ‘The 59th St. Bridge Song (Feelin’ Groovy)’
Paul Simon is one of the best singer-songwriters in history, but he clearly didn’t have a clue what he was talking about when he wrote this song. In fairness he wrote it before the first ever NYC Marathon, but I owe it to him and you to correct some of the misconceptions in his lyrics…
NYC Marathon Part 3: Of Signs and High-fives
One of the best features of the support during marathons is the cheer signs, some of which were very common (“Keep chafing the dream”, “Go, random stranger, go”, “You can do this!” etc.). Others were more topical, from the plausible “If Trump can run for President, you can run 26.2 miles!”, to the painfully misjudged…
NYC Marathon Part 2: Brooklyn-Queens (miles 2-15)
NYC Marathon legend has it that the Green-bibbed runners crossing the Verazzano Bridge on the lower level are showered by the orange liquid emanating from the Orange-bibbed runners on the upper level. Whilst I cannot speak to previous years, I can tell you that definitely didn’t happen this year, perhaps because of the threat of…
NYC Marathon Part 1: Belvedere Hotel-Brooklyn (0-2 miles)
“In the meantime 49,000 of my newest and worst dressed friends were doing the same thing in an unsurpassed festival of sartorial dissonance.”
Training for the NYC Marathon
As I hobbled into the front garden after my cooldown walk with our dog Sushi I just lay down in the foetal position, unable to take the six steps up into the house. Sushi licked my face and I didn’t move. Then the sprinklers came on. I still didn’t move.
PORK ROPE 